In recent years, transportation methods have changed substantially. This change is due in part to a concern over the limited availability of natural resources, a proliferation in personal technology, and a societal shift to adopt more environmentally friendly transportation solutions. These considerations have encouraged the development of a number of new flexible-fuel vehicles, hybrid-electric vehicles, and electric vehicles.
Vehicles employing at least one electric motor and power system store electrical energy in a number of on board energy storage devices. These vehicle energy storage devices are generally arranged in the form of electrically interconnected individual battery modules containing a number of individual battery cells. The battery modules are generally connected to an electrical control system to provide a desired available voltage, ampere-hour, and/or other electrical characteristics to a vehicle. In some cases, one or more of the battery modules in a vehicle can be connected to a battery management system that is configured to monitor the voltage sensed from each cell in the battery module and/or the entire battery.
Electric vehicles are dependent on the integrity and reliability of the on board electrical energy power supply and energy storage devices. Typical vehicle energy storage devices include a battery that is composed of a number of battery modules and each of these battery modules may include tens, if not hundreds, of battery cells. As can be appreciated, the chance of failure in a system is proportionate to the number of components, interconnections, and connection modes, etc., in the energy storage devices of a vehicle.